Her first year away is turning out to be nearly perfect, but one weekend of giving in to heated passion will change everything.

Eighteen-year-old Harper has grown up under the thumb of her career marine father. Ready to live life her own way and to experience things she’s only ever heard of from the jarheads in her father’s unit, she’s on her way to college at San Diego State University.

Thanks to her new roommate, Harper is introduced to a world of parties, gorgeous guys, family, and emotions. She finds herself being torn in two as she quickly falls in love with both her new boyfriend, Brandon, and her roommate’s brother, Chase. Despite their dangerous looks and histories, both men adore Harper and would do anything for her, including taking a step back if it would mean she’d be happy.

I feel horrible saying this, but I hated this book. Hated it. It really should have been a 1 star review for me. Taking Chances is getting 2 stars for one reason alone:

Molly McAdams can write.

While I hated the story, I still wanted to know what was going to happen. Molly McAdams’ tale twisted and turned so quickly I didn’t know what end was up. It was like watching a train wreck. I couldn’t take my eyes away from it. It made me so mad because I didn’t want to finish reading the book. I was constantly uncomfortable and crabby.

Taking Chances was one of the worst love triangles I’ve ever read. It started out okay. I thought I was really going to like Harper with her military single dad upbringing, but she quickly became someone I loathed. I never once empathized with her. She just wasn’t a good person. What she did throughout the whole story was really immature and wrong. Her lack of guilt was horrible.

Harper wasn’t the only character I couldn’t stand, though. There was something seriously wrong with Chase. You don’t chase after your friend’s woman. I don’t care if you saw her first or love her or whatever. I’m probably going to get flack for saying that because a lot of readers loved his sweet ways, but he should have backed off.

As for Brandon…I never connected with his character. I felt sorry for the guy, but that was about it.

The only character I rooted for at all was Carter. That definitely didn’t turn out the way I had hoped.

The characters weren’t the only thing messed up about this story. All I could do at the end was shake my head. It was all sorts of crazy.

I don’t know if I would recommend this book at all or not. I guess if you don’t mind cheating and love crazy situations, then go for it. I will say that I think Molly McAdams is a skilled writer, and I will try another one of her books in the future.

I never read this one, but I read the companion novel, Stealing Harper, (didn’t realize it was a companion at the time). I think it was one of the very worst books I’ve ever read. I hated all the characters – especially Harper. I refused to ever read anything by this author ever again after that book haha.